Experience the November 7th, 2026 RaDAR Rally

Get ready for the RaDAR Rally on Saturday, November 7, 2026! This was the topic of the October 12, 2026 Beginner's Academy Zoom.

RaDAR (Rapid Deployment Amateur Radio) is a fun and challenging outdoor activity where you set up a portable station, make five contacts, pack up, and move to a new location—repeating the process within a four-hour window.

Here is how to get involved:

  - Register: Email radarrallyevent@gmail.com to receive the Google Form link.
  - Info & Rules: Visit www.radarrally.info
  - Community: Join the RaDAR group on groups.io

Have a safe and fun RaDAR Rally, and be sure to share your experience on social media!

73,

Greg N4KGL

Parks On The Air: Getting Started

 This was the topic of our Sept. 28th Beginner's Academy Zoom. Also see https://parksontheair.com/ and https://pota.app/#/

The Panama City ARC Fall Tailgate is Oct 24th, 2026

 Please join us as we celebrate 70 years of our club.  Bring gear to sell, your wallet to buy gear, or just join in conversation and share stories with your local hams.  Food will be available for a small fee.  We are planning to have a fox hunt in the area.

Location: PCARC Clubhouse

                130 N. Church Ave.

                Panama City, FL  32401

Date/Time:  October 24, 2026

                   9am to 1pm

Upcoming Area Hamfests

See flyers below.

 

Tracking Amateur Balloons with a $30 HT

This was the topic of the August 31st Beginner's Academy Zoom. Note: AI was used in the production of this video. I did not have a balloon, but only the radiosonde. This is prep for tracking HAB flights or even amateur rockets.

Greg N4KGL demonstrates how to track amateur weather balloons using a $30 Quansheng UV-K6 handheld radio. With a repurposed Vaisala RS41 radiosonde provided by Bill Brown WB8ELK, the project uses ham-built IJV V4 firmware and a NA6D AIOC interface cable to pipe the radio's audio into a browser-based decoder called webhorus. After an initial firmware misfire with F4HWN, the IJV V4 firmware successfully decoded the RS41's Horus Binary telemetry and displayed the balloon's position on a map in real time — all for about $95 in hardware. The presentation also covers portable decoding with an Android tablet, CW Morse code experiments, advanced CW firmware mods by NR7Y, and channel management using the IJV memory editor and CHIRP. The takeaway: ham-written firmware transforms cheap radios into genuinely capable tools, and the same approach could work for tracking rockets at Samson launches. 

 

Ridgecrest STEM High Altitude Balloon Reaches the Edge of Space

The meeting featured a presentation by Greg Summerlin and his student team on their high-altitude balloon project, which aims to reach the edge of space. They detailed the STEM program's structure, the balloon's technical setup with GPS and LoRaWAN tracking, and the use of a custom-built antenna array for live image transmission. The team shared video footage and images from previous launches, discussed challenges like battery life and tracking at high altitudes, and explained their use of the Helium network for data relay. This was the topic of the August 3rd Beginner's Academy Zoom.

 

Alabama QSO Party Recap

These are highlights of N4KGL' s AQP experience, including syncing contacts with the WRL contest log.